Beautiful Monster
by Good Hamster Gone Bad
Summary: "There is always some madness in love, but there is also always some reason in madness." - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pokémon. *sniff sniff* :(

**Important Info:** This story will be in Third Person Limited. The "O-O-O-O-O-O" is a change in P.O.V. If you need an explanation, then I'll explain it so no one is confused. When Mina (my OC who is revealed in the Introduction) is the character of the moment, you will only be able to hear her thoughts and sense her feelings, and it is the same when N is the character of the moment as well. Characters other than N and Mina will only be presented externally, meaning you won't be able to know their thoughts or what they're feeling.

**~/~**

**Title:** Beautiful Monster  
**Genre:** Friendship/Romance  
**Rating:** T for now. . . . may turn into an M for later chapters, maybe. o_o;  
**Cover Art:** Mina and N drawn by my best bud, Silent. Assassin. Number0001. :3  
**Summary:** N stumbles upon a damaged pokéball, and within it discovers a young lady who claims she is a Pokémon that was turned into a human. He takes her in and befriends her, but soon finds himself attached to her. Will he succumb to his feelings, or shun them away because he feels it's wrong to love a Pokémon, even if she is human in appearance?

**~/~**

**_Introduction_**

_Before the advanced technology of the present Pokémon world, a mad scientist known as Dr. Hanszel Drake created an invention that could turn a Pokémon into an actual human being. However, there were many obstacles with building the invention and getting it to work properly. The first time he tried his invention, the Pokémon stayed the same. The second time, the Pokémon only inherited a couple human traits, such as a human face. He tried again, and again, and again... and again, but everytime, he failed to produce a completely transformed Pokémon... but that was before he tried it one last time._

_His Pokémon of choice was his Purrloin, Mina, whom he had a very close bond with. He knew that it was a long shot, but he wanted to make sure that his invention was a failure before he decided to give up on it once and for all. He pulled the lever, and the smoke on the inside of the glass containment chamber concealed Mina behind a thick cloud. The cries of his Pokémon in pain hurt his ears, and made him resent himself for putting his Pokémon in danger like that, but as he tried to push the lever back up, it wouldn't budge, so he pushed up even harder, causing the lever to break apart._

_The invention blared due to complications, but the cries of his Pokémon in distress was all he could hear, so he rushed over to the glass doors and tried his hardest to pry them apart, but then, suddenly, the container exploded, forcing Dr. Drake to fly back towards the wall of his laboratory. When the smoke from within the container cleared, it revealed Mina with the body of a human, yet still having the traits of a Purrloin, such as claws on her hands and feet, cat-like eyes, hair that looked like the ears of a Purrloin, and a tail._

_However, it wasn't too long before police showed up after the loud explosion. He picked Mina up in his arms and fled the scene, taking refuge in the forest behind his house. He could hear police sirens and the calls of different Pokémon coming after him. He knew that they would catch him sooner or later, so he called Mina back to her pokéball, since it still recognized her as a Pokémon, and threw it into a rapid river that would carry her out to sea so that she would never be found._

_He was arrested soon after for "illegal experimentation on Pokémon", and was put in jail for the rest of his life._

_Now, Mina has been adrift in the sea for over 50 years, trapped inside her pokéball, unable to get out on her own. Unaware of the many years that have passed, she keeps hoping that Dr. Drake will find her so they can live happily together in secret, but what will happen when she wakes up in an unfamiliar world... with her pokéball in the hands of a very unfamiliar and mysterious young male?_

* * *

**Chapter 1**

_Why? . . . . . . Why did he do it?_

The Poké-human's voice echoed throughout the dark, empty atmosphere around her as she recollected her memories of long ago, but to her, they're memories of yesterday.

She curled up, wrapping her arms around her legs and bringing her knees to her chest as she surrounds her body with her long tail. Her bottle-green eyes examined her light, unclothed skin as it stands out against the shadows.

_I just don't understand. . . . why would he do something like this?_

She tightened her hold on her legs; tears began to form at the corners of her eyes.

_He told me that we'd run away together. . . . and that no one would find us. So. . . . why am I here in the pitch-black emptiness of my pokéball. . . alone?_

She closed her eyes as a lone tear dripped down her cheek, landing on the hidden ground beneath her. She rolled over onto her back and exhaled a sigh, bringing her hand up to her face and flexing her fingers, afterwards looking at her long, sharp claws.

_This new form. . . . I still don't quite understand how it works. . . ._

She paused to push herself up on her elbows, and directed her attention to the two fleshy mounds on her chest. She regarded them with a look of distaste as she cupped both of them.

_And why anyone would need _these_ is beyond me. . . . but. . . . why didn't Dr. Drake have them, too?_

She threw herself back down on the invisible bottom and stared at the empty space that surrounded her, pondering her question with great interest before ultimately coming to the conclusion that it didn't really matter as she sighed once more. All that was really on her mind was Dr. Drake. What he said to her still made her heart pang with misery. . .

_*"Mina, I don't want you to live a life I will have to endure after the police capture me and take me away. You were one of my very first experiments to work, and I'm sorry if I put you through a lot of pain. It's too much for any Pokémon, or even a human, to go through. I promise that from here on out you won't be hurt ever again. Just remember, Mina: you will always be my Pokémon, and my dearest friend, now return to your pokéball, and I'll make sure no one ever finds you."*_

**_Splink!_**

Another tear made a mad dash to the invisible ground.

_But I didn't want to get stuck in here. . . . I wanted to be by your side. . . . I. . . . I wanted to be with you. . . ._

She hugged her knees tightly, imagining that it was the torso of the man she was so fond of as she slowly drifted off into a deep sleep.

O-O-O-O-O-O

"Purr, purrloin?"

The Devious Pokémon hopped down from his master's shoulder and bounded over to the small flowing stream in front of them. Purrloin then looked back and called out, "Purrloin, purr, purr!"

"Purrloin, what's wrong? Did you find something?" the green-haired man asked his friend as he walked over to the edge to accompany his Pokémon. Purrloin pointed to a pokéball jammed in between two rocks, and once his trainer caught sight of it, the young male seemed shocked. The capture device looked old and worn out, as if it had been beaten up by rocks and thrashed about by the water for a great deal of time. "Such negligence."

He extended his hand and gripped the pokéball, pulling it out with one forceful tug from atween the stationary rocks.

Purrloin hopped back up onto his trainer's shoulders and looked at the device with much fascination. "Purrloin, purr?"

"I'm guessing that this pokéball was abandoned years ago," the male stated, observing the damaged pokéball. "The color is faded, and there are dents and scratches everywhere I look."

_Now that trainer I met in Accumula Town will know what I was talking about when I said that all Pokémon must be liberated from humans. Just seeing this pokéball in this kind of state makes me sick to my stomach. It was one thing to be abusing a Pokémon's power to win a few battles and forcing them to train harder, but now people are throwing away their Pokémon? That is simply repulsive._

He aimed the capture device in front of him. "I will free you from your prison, my friend!"

O-O-O-O-O-O

"Hmm?"

Mina opened her eyes at the sound of a male voice echoing from within the darkness of her pokéball.

_Dr. Drake? . . . . No, it can't be. His voice didn't sound like that. . . . I guess I'm just imagining things. . . . as usual._

O-O-O-O-O-O

"Come out into this world so that you may be free of your confinement!"

The pokéball in his hand shook violently as the white light from within the ball exploded after his command. The light soon reached the ground, and, to the trainer's amazement, the Pokémon that manifested from that light didn't look like a Pokémon at all. In fact. . . . it was a human that he perceived as the light faded and revealed a nude woman sitting on the ground before him.

The young girl was sitting on her knees with her back hunched while one of her arms covered her breasts and the other concealed the second forbidden female body part. Gradually, she lifted her head up and removed her gaze from the ground, revealing light green eyes hidden behind dark purple bangs as she looked up at the green-haired man before her.

_What Pokémon does she remind me of?_ the trainer asked himself. Suddenly, it hit him. As he looked back and forth at Purrloin on his shoulder and the girl, he noticed how much alike the Devious Pokémon and the girl looked, from the way the girl's hair was styled to look like Purrloin's ears, the green, cat-like eyes. . . . and then, he noticed the scythe-like tail that was infamous for a Purrloin to possess.

The male couldn't believe what he was seeing; the girl actually had a tail, and he knew it wasn't a fake because the girl moved it back and forth slowly without swinging her hips or using her hand to move it manually.

. . . . But what shocked him most was how exposed she was. Her bare pale skin shined against the intense luminosity of the bright sun above, highlighting the outline of her body in a white glow.

Suddenly, he felt his nether regions beginning to tense up, and soon began feeling guilty and ashamed that he was so attracted to the young lady in front of him, especially due to the fact that he was staring at her body while it was uncovered. He thought of himself as a pervert. . . .

"Who. . . . Who are you?" she suddenly inquired with a confused tone. She then began looking around at her surroundings frantically. "Wh-where am I?! How'd I get here?!" She directed her attention back to the male and demanded, "Tell me why everything looks so different!"

"Calm down, miss," he said with a composed tone, ignoring the tenseness down in his groin, and unbottoned his white dress shirt and stripped himself of it to reveal a black skin-tight shirt underneath. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you." Slowly, he walked over to the girl with his shirt in his hands and kneeled down beside her, but as he tried to place the colorless fabric over her similarly colored skin, she recoiled and moved away from the unfamiliar material.

"This can't hurt you," the trainer said, shaking it back and forth to prove his point. "It's just something to cover you up. It's inappropriate for someone to walk around with nothing on, especially for a young lady like yourself."

His words seemed to reassure the female, and she allowed him to place the fabric around her.

O-O-O-O-O-O

_Who is this guy?_ Mina questioned herself as she felt the warm cloth against her back which sent chills down her spine as she recollected the sensation of heat.

While she was trapped inside the capture device for what seemed like an eternity, all she ever felt was the cold draftiness from within the dark world of her pokéball that she had created due to her feeling of loneliness and abandonment, so she forgot how it felt to be warm.

"If I may be so bold as to ask. . . ."

The male's voice caused her to look up into his steel blue eyes as he continued to speak.

". . . . may I know your name?"

The Poké-human hesitated at first because the man was a stranger; someone she's never seen before. . . . but, for some odd reason, she felt as though she could trust this man, so she responded, "M-My trainer gave me the name 'Mina'."

His brows furrowed at the word "trainer".

O-O-O-O-O-O

_'Trainer'? Is this girl serious? She can't really be a Pokémon that changed into a human. . . . can she? This. . . seems a bit too familiar to me. I seem to remember reading about something like this. . . . What is is that I'm thinking of? What book have I read that told about this kind of thing. . . .? It had some kind of scientist in it. . . . and he invented something that could turn a Pokémon into a human. . . . b-but that could never happen, could it?_

"Who are you, then?"

Her voice brought him out of his thoughts, and he soon found himself eye-to-eye with her. He smiled politely before saying, "My name is N Harmonia, but you can just call me N."

". . . . N?" she questioned after a long pause. "Does it stand for something else, or it that really your name?"

N blushed at her question and looked away from her bewildered gaze. Truth be told, his full name was Natural Harmonia Gropius, but he preferred to be called N. The name "Natural" made him wonder what kind of drugs his parents were on. . . . either that, or Ghetsis was on drugs when he came up with N's name. Either way, he was perfectly fine with being called "N" instead of "Natural".

"It's really my name," N lied.

Mina giggled, "Haha, that's a weird name!"

He laughed with Mina as he realized that it was indeed a strange name, but he had more important issues to discuss with her. . . . such as how she was actually captured in the pokéball. . . . and why she has a tail.

* * *

**[A/N]** **I'm quite pleased with this chapter. No flames please. More will be added soon.**

**N: *suddenly appears right beside me* Nooooooo! D: I need to ask her questions _NOW_!**

**Me: I will do another chapter when I damn well feel like it, and you _WILL_ wait, or I'll make sure she finds out your real name. . . . _"Natural"_. **

**N: 0_0; . . . . okay, I'll be quiet. . . .**

**Me: Yes, you will.**

**Reviews aren't required, but are appreciated. :3**

**Also, if you find any mistakes, I'd be grateful if you point them out to me.**

**Chapter 2 will be coming soon, though, so just be patient, fellow readers. :D**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello, all. I told you the second chapter would be coming soon. This chapter's plot is simple: N asks Mina questions while she in turn asks N why everything is so different. There's a really cute part at the end. DUN READ IT YET! (:O**

**N: _Hammie_ doesn't own Pokémon. It belongs to the man who created it: Satoshi Tajiri. :)**

**Me: ****Very nice disclaimer, N. ~patpatpat~**

**N: ^/^;**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

"So. . . . Mina, is it?" N inquired.

Mina nodded, but inwardly frowned. _Why is he asking if that's my name? He knows that's what it is. . . . _

N cleared his throat before saying, "I have a few questions that I'd like for you to answer. They're nothing too difficult. They're just some problems that I'm having trouble understanding."

The Poké-human thought about it for a second. Should she really be here? Should she even be talking to this weirdo she just met moments before? She glanced back up and found the friendly, soft blue eyes that glittered ever so brilliantly in the sunlight's radiant beams. She had to admit: he wasn't_ all_ the bad to look at. The only thing about him she found weird was his grassy-looking hair. . . . yet she desired to touch it. It looked so soft, and so fluffy. . . . like the down on a newly hatched Pidove.

She _wanted_ that hair.

But before she could reach out and grab hold of it, N asked, "Can you explain to me what exactly you were doing in that pokéball? You're a human. Humans can't be absorbed into a pokéball, so how were you able to be caught inside of one?"

"Well. . . . I. . . . g-guess you can say that. . . . I'm actually a Pokémon."

"Ha!" N ever so stridently laughed, making Mina flinch from the sudden verbalization. "That's a good one!"

Mina felt humiliated and displeased that he laughed, especially when she was telling him the truth.

"You're not a Pokémon," he declared. "You look like a regular human to me. Other than the fact that you have a tail like Purrloin's."

_My tail!_ She realized that it was the only evidence she had that proved she was a Pokémon.

O-O-O-O-O-O

N didn't want to jump to conclusions so easily. The tail might just be some kind of robotic or animatronic device that she could control with her mind. Many scientists were coming up with new inventions one after the other nowadays, and the science behind it all is so confusing that even N can't figure out how many new inventions work, but he felt like he was right about the tail.

Suddenly, Mina brought her tail up to his face and shook it around crazily. "I'm not lying! I'm really a Pokémon! I was transformed into a human by my trainer!"

N regarded the tail with a look of interest and gripped around it tightly with his right hand while he brushed his fingers across the tail with his left.

He was surprised to find out that the tail was actually covered in fine, soft purple hair, and as he took a closer look, he saw that the fur was attached to pale skin.

It was too much for his mind to comprehend. There was only one other way he could prove that Mina's tail wasn't real. Usually, a robotic or animatronic device moves around like one should: with jerky movements. It was his last option. . . .

"Mina, could you move your tail around for me?"

"Why?" she answered.

"I just want you to," he replied. "Can you do it for me?"

Upon releasing her tail, Mina waved it back and forth in front of his face. There were no erratic or awkward movements; the actions were smooth, and as for a mechanical device, N couldn't hear the whirring or klinking of any kind of machine, so he had to face the facts. . . .

This girl was for real.

O-O-O-O-O

Mina couldn't figure out why this guy wanted her to move her tail around. It wasn't like he could tell she was a Pokémon by a wave of her tail. . . . could he?

"Now do you believe that I'm a Pokémon, N?" she inquired, aggravated.

N sighed, "Truth is. . . . I _don't_ want to believe that."

This had Mina confused. Why didn't he want to accept the reality that she was in fact a Pokémon? Was it too hard for him to understand? It shouldn't be. . . .

"Mina, I live in a world where Pokémon are just Pokémon, and humans are just humans," N explained. "This. . . . you standing before me a human and claiming that you were a Pokémon before. . . . it defies everything I've been taught."

"But I was a-"

"Science hasn't yet begun to become that complicated," N said, ignoring Mina's interruption. "All of the knowledge and skill a person had to contain just to think of a device like the one that transformed you, a Pokémon, into a human, and actually make it work, is hard to believe."

The last comment caused Mina to become angry with N, and she hopped up to her feet, pointing a rigid, clawed finger right at N; her tail waved back and forth angrily as she shouted, "Don't doubt Dr. Drake! He was a good man, and a real smart scientist! He worked hard to make that invention!"

O-O-O-O-O-O

_Dr. Drake? Is she talking about. . . . Dr. Hanszel Drake?! The scientist from the fictional story "Poké-Human"?_ N gasped inwardly as he remembered the events that took place in the story. _I remember now. The story started out with a poverty-stricken scientist, Dr. Hanszel Drake, desperate for money, so he decided to invent a machine that could turn a Pokémon into a human. Other scientists mocked his efforts, but after a few good long months of little rest, he finally completed his creation. His Pokémon of choice was his beloved Purrloin who had stuck by his side through thick and thin and a friend he has had ever since Dr. Drake was a little boy. By the time he pulled the lever, his Pokémon was in so much pain that he felt guilty, but as he tried to push the lever back up, it broke and the container exploded, revealing a beautiful woman among the broken shards of glass. After a few long chapters, he developed feelings for her, and never wanted anyone to find her, but a couple chapters later, he was running away from the police with his creation in his arms. At the end, he kissed her and told her that he would always love her no matter what, returned her back to her pokéball, and threw the capture device into a river where it would never be found._

The rest of the ending escaped his memory.

N stared at Mina with great fascination, muting the words she was shouting. The hair, the eyes, the tail, the claws. . . . everything told in the story Mina had. No, it was just unreal. . . . there was no way a story-bound character such as the one in "Poké-Human" could become real. . . . there was just no way!

"M-Mina. . . .?"

"What?!" she yelled, still apparently angry with him. "Can't you see that I'm trying to-?!"

"Dr. Drake. . . . wasn't real," N cut her off.

This seemed to make Mina even more enraged. "Yes he was! He _was_ real! I can prove it! I'll show you he was real!" She extended her arm and held out an open-palm hand. "Let me see my pokéball, N."

The vehemence in her voice compelled N to hand over the damaged capture device. As soon as he did, Mina opened it up and showed him the interior of the ball. . . . and what he saw almost left him speechless. . . .

There, on the bottom of the pokéball, was an inscription that read, _'Property of Dr. Hanszel Drake'_. His eyes glanced back up to Mina; his mouth was agape as he viewed a true-life character out of a fictional story.

Mina suddenly asked, "So, where is he?"

N became saddened that she asked this question, but before he was about to tell her he didn't know, he felt his heart pang as the ending of the story finally came to mind.

_Now I remember. . . . In the story, Dr. Drake had a heart attack in jail when he was 35 years old. If everything in that story has been secretly true as of now, why can't his death be true as well?_ He hung his head so that his bangs covered his eyes; he did not want to see her face when he told Mina of the grave news. _This fictional story just became a non-fictional nightmare. . . ._

"Mina. . . . I-I don't know how to tell you this. . . . b-but," N paused, allowing the silence to surround the two of them before continuing. "You see, there's this book that described Dr. Drake's life. It was supposed to be a fictional story. . . . y'know, not true at any costs. . . . but now that I see you standing before me, and how you've proven to me that you aren't fake. . . . well, I guess I should tell what happened at the end of the story."

O-O-O-O-O-O

Mina observed N intently; her eyes were narrowed and a scowl decorated her pale face.

He said slowly, "Dr. Drake is. . . . dead."

However, Mina didn't believe him and simply laughed off his last statement, "Haha, yeah right! Now, seriously, tell me where he is!" Her right hand reached out and quickly grabbed hold of N's neck while the left was held up in a threatening stance as if she was going to claw at his face or slap him. She leaned in closer so that they were merely centimeters away from each other as she said, "And tell the truth . . . . because I hate being lied to."

Purrloin, who had been ignored for the past ten minutes, jumped down from N's shoulder and retreated behind a bush but still poked his head out from behind the shrub to see what will happen.

N coughed as Mina squeezed his neck, "I. . . . a-am telling. . . . th-the truth!"

"Prove it!" Mina demanded.

N's hand reached down into his left pocket and he fished out the book, opening it to the very last page and holding it up to Mina with a shaky hand as she kept squeezing tighter and tighter with each moment that passed. "J-Just read. . . . this page!"

Both her hands obtained the book, allowing N to sharply inhale a couple breaths of air, coughing as he regained the oxygen that Mina had constricted out of him.

And then he heard something hit the ground, which made his eyes look up to find the book lying on the ground and still stuck on the last page. He looked up a bit more and found Mina with her bangs covering her eyes; her elbows were slightly bent and her hands were clenched into fists. . . . and a few tears raced down her cheeks to meet their demise with the cold, hard ground.

Mina's voice came out as a whisper, "It. . . . It can't be true. . . . h-he can't be. . . ."

Then, without warning, an incredibly dark aura began to emerge from the soil around her, enveloping her body in a dark purple shadow as it coiled around her like a Seviper. N scooted himself back with his legs in a panic as he watched the darkness consume her, erasing the white shirt from her body and creating the image of sleek, dark purple skin.

Suddenly, her eyes flashed an intense red behind her bangs and she let loose a loud, shrill scream that sent shockwaves throughout the area.

O-O-O-O-O-O

N tightened his eyes together and pressed his hands against his ears as he tried to block out the high-pitched noise with no success. _What the hell's happening?!_

He painfully unclenched his lids as he viewed the once innocent Poké-human now transformed into a horrifying, dark purple shadow screaming at the top of her lungs in pure torment.

_This is all my fault!_ he thought to himself as he painstakingly rose to his feet, almost falling from the intense reverberations of her howls._ If I would've just kept my mouth shut and told her that he was still alive, then this wouldn't have happened!_

"Mina, you need to calm down!" he shouted as loud as he could, but his words seemed to do nothing as her piercing screams carried on.

_Fine then, if my words can't stop her, then maybe my actions can. . . ._

He began to move his feet, inching his way towards the girl until he came to her side. His hand gripped her wrist, not too tightly, but firm enough for her to stop her screaming and look over at him.

N had never felt so incredibly petrified in all his life as he looked into the evil, glowing red eyes, which were once a beautiful shade of light green, now possessed by resentment and rage. Her growls and snarls were practically demonic, and her skin was as cold as ice. It didn't even feel like skin; it felt like some kind of hard shell that replaced her own flesh.

Suddenly, she brought her hand only a foot away from his face and a black sphere began to take shape while some kind of purple, crackling currents of electricity surrounded the ball of dark energy.

N's eyes widened in amazement and terror, but before he could move out of the way, the black sphere assaulted his face and he was blown back from the force of the attack, making him land on the ground on his back harshly.

He pushed himself up off of the cold earth and shook as he got to his feet, needing the assistance a conveniently placed tree to hold up his body. _Don't tell me that was. . . . Shadow Ball. . . ._ He placed a hand over his face, cringing at the sudden pain it caused him.

His eyes glanced up at Mina who was now performing Shadow Ball frenziedly at anything she could hit, such as rocks and trees and even at the ground, creating small craters in the dirt. At times, a wave of purple energy would be emitted from her body. _Dark Pulse. . . . and Shadow Ball. . . . they are moves that Purrloin can learn. . . ._ He suddenly began coughing violently, tasting the metallic flavor of blood as it dripped from his lips. He slid down the bark of the tree and grunted in pain as he landed on his rear with difficulty.

_There's gotta be a way to set Mina free from her wrath. . . . if only I knew what that was. . . ._

"Purrloin, purr, purr, purrloin!"

The fear-filled voice of his friend and the feeling of tiny paws on his right arm made N look over to see the Devious Pokémon gazing at his trainer with concern. N placed a gentle hand on Purrloin's head and patted him. "Don't worry, Purrloin. I'll make sure you won't get hurt." N took out Purrloin's pokéball and returned Purrloin to the capture device before the Devious Pokémon could protest.

N forced himself to stand up, stumbling a bit in the process as he had to recover his balance.

Out of the blue, Mina stopped her attacks and simply stood on the ground with her fists clenched and her head hung. She spoke with a sinister demonic voice that had N's spine shivering with cold chills, "I've been trapped inside my pokéball. . . . for so long. Alone. . . . all by myself in the darkness. I hated it. . . . I hated feeling abandoned!"

"Mina. . . ." N whispered; his tone of voice was remorseful.

"Why would he promise me that we would live together. . . . and then throw me away like that?! It was. . . . **IT WAS ALL A _LIE_! THAT'S _ALL_ IT WAS!**"

Her shouting caused N to flinch and almost fall over from the forcefulness of her voice. A single, blood-like tear fell from her right eye, and N could've swore his heart broke in two right then and there.

"Well. . . . I'm tired of being alone! I don't. . . . _**I DON'T WANT TO BE ALONE ANYMORE****!**_"

O-O-O-O-O-O

And then, suddenly, Mina felt a pair of arms wrap around her her slender waist, pulling her chest closer to a broader, stronger torso. A gentle hand stroked the back of her head softly and slowly, and she could feel the warmth that radiated from the embrace encompass her body.

"Calm down, Mina," N's voice was soothing as he pressed her even tighter against his chest. "Just please. . . . calm down."

The cold hard shell that once covered her skin began to recede, creating the image of liquefied metal pouring off of her bare skin, and her eyes went back to their normal green coloring.

She then began to feel lethargic, and she suddenly became limp in N's arms.

N sat down on the ground, placing her in his lap and putting an arm around her back while his fingers on the other brushed over her right cheek, damp from the lone tear that fell earlier.

Mina opened her eyes upon feeling the contact, and felt her face become a bit heated as she found herself looking straight into the steely blue eyes of N.

Ignoring the weird feeling she began to feel, she asked weakly, "What. . . . what happened?"

"You kind of went crazy when you learned about Dr. Drake's death," he replied with a halfhearted chuckle.

Then, Mina noticed a bruise on N's left cheek. "D-Did I do that?!" She brought a hand up and cupped his cheek, feeling him try to flinch away from her touch.

"It doesn't matter, Mina."

"So. . . . I did do it. . . ." She felt ashamed that she hurt him without her even knowing it.

Truth be told, Mina blacked out right when she finished reading the page N told her to read, and from then until now, everything was a major blur.

N placed a hand over Mina's and sighed. "Like I said: it doesn't matter right now." He smiled as he locked eyes with Mina. "All that matters is that you're okay now."

"But. . . . I-I'm dangerous!" she cried.

Mina inhaled sharply as she felt N's head rest on top of hers; the hand that once rested on her back was moved to the back of her head as she felt fingers brush through her short hair.

"You aren't dangerous," N said. "You were just afraid."

She turned her head to cry on his shoulder and gripped his shirt desperately to the point where she thought that her claws punctured through the black fabric. Mina didn't understand why he was defending her. "Why are you endangering yourself?! If I went any further, I could've. . . . could've. . . ." Mina sobbed even more, dampening the shirt with salty tears; she didn't want to go there.

Then, she heard N chuckle silently. "But you didn't."

This reassured her, and she stiffled another tear, wiping it away before it could accumulate more water. _He's right, of course, but what if I did? I wouldn't be able to live with myself. . . ._

"I've just been so alone for so long," Mina confessed, sniffling. "I didn't want to be alone anymore."

"You won't be alone anymore, Mina," N declared, putting his arms around her waist and pushing her against his chest a bit more. "I'm here now, and right now, you're my responsibility. I promise you that I'll never let you feel alone ever again."

Mina's eyes widened at his last statement, but then they soon softened and closed as she buried her face in N's chest and wrapped her arms around his torso, melting into his arms as she took in more heat from his body.

_N. . . . I hope you keep your promise. . . . . because I'm tired of being lied to. . . . ._

She then felt the soft strands of N's hair graze across her hands and, before she could miss her chance to, she buried her fingers into the mass of green hair, smiling secretly as they entwined with the locks of hair she so desperately wanted to touch up 'til now.

Though the shell that once encased her body had melted away, what was left of the dark aura remained, but seemed to not want to leave as it reached out and took hold of her pinky toe, but ultimately had to set it free as the energy slowly withdrew into the ground where it came from.

* * *

**[A/N]: ACK! This was soooooo cuute! I lurved the ending! Sorry it was so long, but it was worth it.**

**N: Still, why couldn't have the shirt just magically reappeared on her skin after the purple stuff on her skin went away? It felt weird holding someone completely naked in my arms. O_o;**

**Me: . . . . . . *evil grin*. . . . Don't tell me you didn't like it. xD**

**N: *blushblushblushblush* *runs out of room with face as red as a tomato***

**Me: Awh, little N's blushing. ^-^**

**Reviews are appreciated, but not required. :)**


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